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It is the “LAST GREAT FIGHT.” That is not to say that there will no longer be exciting matchups in the sport, but in terms of the shear magnitude of events, it will likely be the last major special that the sport will ever see.
Over the past twenty years, boxing has gone from the front pages of every major sports section, when Tyson and Lewis were in their primes, to a niche sport dominated by those who still hold a connection to the sweet science.
For the betting world, boxing is still thriving, and continues to be a major source of action in both Vegas and Atlantic City. Big fights are still drawing tens of thousands of fans and PPV buys are staying consistent. So when I say that this is the LAST GREAT FIGHT, I don’t mean to imply that the sport is dying, it is just falling into a different category.
Consider if you will the mere fact that last month the Calzaghe versus Manfredo fight drew over 35,000 people to the MEN Arena in England. Saying that boxing is dying is like saying that soccer is dead. It might be dead in the households of millions of American sports fans, but around the globe it is still a major attraction.
Tonight, Oscar De la hoya, 38-4 (30), will face off against this generation’s greatest fighter, Floyd Mayweather Jr., 37-0 (24), in a fight that has not only already broken all gate records for live boxing [$19 Million and sold out in less than three hours], but has the possibility to be one of the top PPV buys ever.
The enormity of this attraction can be seen at the books. Bodog.com alone has over 20 prop bets up for the fight. Everything from a simple as over/under of rounds to who will be ahead on the unofficial Harold Lederman scorecard after three rounds.
There are other fights is Las Vegas that weekend and the city should see its share of NBA All-Star type violence, it is natural in the fight game. But when it comes fight time on Saturday night, after a pretty boring under card, America will once again be interested in who will rule the boxing world.
For the last ten years, people have lumped the decline of the sport to the decline of the heavyweight division. The knock is that the big guys are slow and boring and since Tyson, no one has captured the imagination of the American public.
This is both true and false. The sports culture in American has fallen in love with other sports and while there are great heavyweights in the game today, there are no great American Heavyweights.
The explanation for this is simple; the big fast strong athletes today would take the big money in football and basketball rather than get punched in the head repeatedly. There is a joke in the boxing world that says “we do have a great heavyweight champ, the only problem is that he is playing center for the Miami Heat or middle linebacker for the Ravens.”
But I digress. Let me get to the point of the argument here. The fight on Saturday night is featuring the most popular fighter of our time, even more so than Tyson if you compare the numbers, against arguably the greatest fighter of all time although half of the sports world doesn’t know who he is.
It is the money man versus the guy who thinks that he should be the money man. It is PR and marketing at its best. It is everything that is horrible and everything that is great about the sport. This fight is the reason that I watch boxing. And that is why it is the LAST GREAT FIGHT.
Let me set the scene for you. Millions of Americans are going to throw parties on Saturday, they are going to head out the pub, or they are going to catch one of the 100,000 closed circuit seats that have been made available for the fight.
They are going to get all hyped up on booze and Doritos and get ready for the fight that their “friend that watches boxing” told them that they had to watch. Then the fight will start. And it is going to be boring. It is going to be a twelve round tactical fight with no blood, no knockdowns and no major controversy. The fight will be brilliant to those who appreciate the sport like me, and will be the reason that Americans have taken to football.
It is kind of sick when I think about it. I am looking forward to the death of something that I love. It is almost like wishing for the death of a relative. You love them, but that inheritance money is something that you have been looking forward to for a long time.
